Documentation:MECH Online Teaching/Discussions and Forums
Discussions
For equity reasons, we recommend moving in-class discussions to an asynchronous format.
If you wish to proceed with synchronous discussions, consider being active on a class forum to interact with those who are unable to attend class synchronously.
Asynchronous
You can create opportunities for asynchronous discussions around text, pdfs, videos and images, using various tools (see below). The form of the discussion will determine the tool you choose.
Open-ended questions are best for discussion. Consider having a discussion about a research paper or about a real-world system (to consider differences from theoretical systems).
You can choose to assign marks for participation and/or quality of contribution (consider whether you will need extra TA hours for this). Consider setting short deadlines for discussion participation, so there is a sense of interaction.
Consider closing the loop on the discussion within lecture, by reporting what the class thought as a whole and commenting on it.
Synchronous
If you want to conduct synchronous oral discussions, your syllabus should indicate that students need a microphone for class. You will also need to change default settings on each Collaborate session to allow participants to share audio.
If you want to conduct synchronous text discussions (via Collaborate chat function, for example), consider providing guidelines on expected conduct in the chat, and giving students time to compose their response.
Q&A Forums
Forums (fora) are useful to publicly answer student questions, so you do not have to repeatedly answer similar questions from students by email. The experience of some Mech 2 instructors actively using a forum has been that it reduces time spent emailing students.
We suggest explicitly telling students how often you will check the forum, so they know when to expect an answer. (Suggest at least 4 times per week[1]). We also suggest encouraging other students to answer peer questions on the forum.
Asynchronous question answering is recommended (can supplement office hours and after class questions), but cannot replace at least one synchronous office hour per week for other time zones.
Tools
Some of the tools for both discussions and QA forums overlap.
Piazza
Discussion board with excellent sorting, follow-up, and notification tools. Note that students can be encouraged to sign up anonymously (since the platform sells student data). Students can answer other student questions, and you can endorse their answers. This is an excellent tool for answering questions.
https://lthub.ubc.ca/guides/piazza/
This has been used in Mech 2 for two years.
Note that if you wish to assign marks for discussion, we don't recommend this tool, as you cannot require students to provide their personal information.
Canvas Discussion Boards
Discussion boards are part of your Canvas course. Students are automatically identified. You can also set up discussions within Canvas groups.
To use for graded discussions, select the "Grading" option.
To use as a Q&A forum, suggest selecting "Allow threaded replies" and "Allow liking".
https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-13016-4152724374
CLAS (posting and commenting on videos)
Students can leave time-tagged comments on videos, including lectures. Students can also leave comments associated with areas of an image (e.g. if you wanted students to discuss a graph or table).
Perusall (commenting on pdfs, webpages)
Allows students/faculty to collectively annotate (leave comments and questions) a pdf or webpage. Can ask questions, make assignments, annotate with LaTeX math, images, etc.
Other
The following tools have not (to our knowledge) been used in MECH, but may be useful. Included here for completeness.
UBC Blogs
Can have an open or private course blog where students can collaboratively write content.
https://lthub.ubc.ca/guides/ubc-blogs/
EdX
Can be used for course-level discussions. EdX is an online learning platform - may not be worth the investment if you are not using EdX for other purposes.
https://lthub.ubc.ca/guides/edx/
Mattermost
An open-source Slack-like threaded communication tool. You can set up channels for groups and to organize content.
https://lthub.ubc.ca/guides/mattermost/
VoiceThread (not used at UBC)
Allows instructors to create commentary on media.